Cargo Magazine Ceases Publication

Apparently the audience of men who want to read about $300 t-shirts wasn't strong enough to keep Cargo magazine afloat.

Condé Nast announced that it is pulling the plug on the men's shopping title it launched two years ago. The magazine's May 2006 issue will be its last.

"Although initial readership and advertising response were encouraging, we now believe the market will not support our business expectations," said Condé Nast CEO Charles Townsend in a company statement.

Cargo was the second in the trio of Condé Nast shopping magazines, beginning with Lucky, a shopping magazine for women, and continuing with last year's launch of Domino, which covers home products. The magazines operate with lean editorial staffs and are packed with charts and graphics.

Though it commissioned photography for larger features, Cargo relied heavily on Condé Nast's in-house photo studio overseen by studio director Jeffrey Schad.

Stephanie Prepon was the magazine's photo director, working with senior photo editor Allison Bonanno, photo manager Audrey Snyderman, photo editor Andrea Volbrecht and photo coordinator Christina Lozito, according to the masthead in a recent issue. The staff's last day is Friday, though a Condé Nast spokesperson said the company will try to find them other jobs within the company.

Aimed at men between 25 and 45, Cargo launched with a base rate of 300,000 and later increased it to 400,000. Cargo's most recent Audit Bureau of Circulation report shows that the magazine's circulation stalled just shy of 400,000 copies with the July/August issue and then took a dive, falling to 373,727 by December. About 20 percent of the sales were on the newsstand. The magazine was publishing ten issues a year had a cover price of $3.50. Cargo subscribers will get copies of Condé Nast title GQ until their subscriptions run out.

Cargo magazine is the third shopping mag gearted toward men to fold in recent months. Last year, Fairchild Publications, which is also part of Condé Nast Publications, ceased publishing Vitals, a shopping magazine with separate editions for men and women, and Ziff Davis shut down tech shopping magazine Sync.